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Saturday, May 10, 2014

Eurovision Song Contest.

One of the great things about modern technology is that I can hear radio from half way around the world live.

I have just spent the afternoon listening to the Eurovision Song Contest on Radio Two from the B.B.C.

I used to love listening to Radio 2 back at home in England. So I was glad that the dear old "Auntie Beeb" adopted internet technology very early on.

Today or tonight if you are in Europe was one of the highlights of the year, the often controversial, sometimes camp, always over politicized Eurovision Song Contest.

The Contest is now over sixty years old. Created in the early days after World War Two and the "Cold War", it was meant officially to tie European national bbroadcasting systems together for joint ventures. The contest is a Song contest where each nation competes for the title of Song for Europe winner.

It has thrown up a lot of silly songs in its history, too many to count really. But ocassionally there is a jewel.

Forty years ago I well remember seeing a new group from Sweden get up to sing some little ditty called "Waterloo". The group was of course ABBA and they went on to become pretty famous.

Tonight we heard Austria win. A very good song, well sung, but whether Conchita Wurst will become an international sensation with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix" is to be seen.

But Conchita does get one other claim to fame, the first bearded drag queen to win the competition. Now that picture comes over much better on radio I guess?

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